The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Cougars gained their first ticket ever to the Big Dance by defeating Southeast Missouri State in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship game. Here is why they will win it all.
Ted Lasso Vibes: When Brian Barone was named head coach six years ago, he put a pair of scissors in a glass frame with instructions to break the glass and use them to cut down the nets once his team made it to the NCAA tournament. I like that even better than Coach Lasso’s “Believe” sign.
Woof: To win it all, you have to have a stud player–a BIG DOG, as Bill Raferty would say–and SIUE has one in Ray’Sean Taylor who led the OVC in scoring at 19.3 per game. He was named the conference player of the year and became SIUE’s all-time scoring leader with 1,952 points. Big Dog gotta eat!
Alumni Power: One of SIUE’s “famous” alums is MLB pitcher Clay Zavada. Although he only played one year in the majors (2009 for the Diamondbacks), he will be remembered for his amazing mustache with his awesomeness recognized by winning the 2009 Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year award from the American Mustache Institute. Fear the Stache!
Mike Hurley
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